Cat Daddy Jackson Galaxy recently moved into a new bungalow outside Los Angeles and he asked me to help “catify” the place with a little Moderncat style. He lives with his three cats, Velouria, Chips, and Caroline, and his little dog, Rudy. Jackson spends his days working with clients, helping them to see the world from a cat’s perspective, so this was his chance to put into practice some of his own advice for his feline family.

The top priority was to create a “cat superhighway” throughout the house. On any good superhighway, you have ample lanes to accommodate the flow of traffic, as well as on and off ramps. In a multi-cat household, sharing a lane of traffic can cause conflict. Cats shouldn’t have to compete for space on a one lane dirt road.

Jackson’s superhighway includes multi-levels: the floor, the ottoman, the bookshelf, and two levels of cat shelves. His cats have all kinds of options for traversing the space without facing a potential traffic jam.

In the living room, there are three perfect cat windows with big beautiful trees right outside, so we placed shelves from Ikea right under each window. Nothing fancy, but the cats love it! To keep the cats from slipping on the shelves, we placed sisal carpet remnants with rubber backing on top of each shelf. A simple solution that’s easy to keep clean and looks great.

To add a little designer touch to the highway, we used a Wave perch from Urban Pet Haus in the center of the wall between two windows. But by watching how the cats used the shelves, we noticed that the cats couldn’t quite get from the Wave to the middle window shelf or over to the bookshelf, so we added a couple of Itch Steps from Square Cat Habitat. These are perfect when you need just a little ledge for kitty to cross from one place to another, plus they have replaceable carpet tiles on top to prevent slipping. Now there’s a clear path along the entire wall that is used quite frequently.

We continued the highway in the bedroom with more shelves from Ikea leading from a low table up to the top of the dresser. Strategically placed cat beds and scratch lounges make for nice destinations along the highway for happy cats to stop for a nap.

In the office nook, again by watching the cats’ behavior, we found that the cats were using the desk surface as part of the highway, moving from the middle window shelf to the shelf above the desk by jumping on and off the desk. Instead of discouraging this, we accommodated the cats by placing sisal pieces with no-slip backing on the corners of the slippery desk surface. This is a great example of modifying an existing surface to accommodate the cats behavior.

As any of you who have both dogs and cats know, sometimes it’s necessary to separate them at feeding time (greedy dogs!) In order to address this issue, Jackson decided to use the top of the low bookshelf in the living room for the cat’s feeding station. To make it easier for the older kitties to reach the raised surface, we added a set of modern pet stairs from Urban Pet Haus. Now the cats can easily access their food while Rudy dines on the lower level.

Of course we had to showcase Jackson’s guitar collection, along with other personal touches. Overall, everyone is quite pleased with their new digs!

loved it. feel free to come and make over our condo. we’re poor with very little cash. but we got three cats and a crowded condo that i own. i’m sure jackson and the pets are very happy with the make over. have a great day.

I agree with Susan Cooper. I think Jackson Galaxy is totally lucky to get the benefit of a beautiful makeover of his home. And I am sure he donates lots of monay and time to charitable causes and that makes him a good guy on top of the great work he does. But sometime I feel sad that the people that truly need some help are the ones that get to continue to dream about a great makeover while Moderncat gets the marketing edge of having a celebrity to endore their offerings. I don’t blame anyone, after all, it’s a business decision that is reasonable. Still, it would be nice once in a while to see a deserving family coping with hard times get the benefit of the gift.

Wonderful to see how the bungalow was adapted to suit the clowder! Great to see the actual products used in conjunction with his regular furniture and accessories too. That’s been missing in so many interior design layouts!

Having a pack of dogs and a clowder of cats myself, I appreciate the real life approach too!

Totally head-over-heels in love with Velouria, Chips, and Caroline; not quite sure who’s who, but that little calico looks a lot like our Maryam, and the little senior fluff-tab is beyond adorable <3! Beautiful place, and wow! Kate! You did an incredible decorating job. How amazing it must be to be called to decorate JACKSON GALAXY'S HOUSE! *sigh*

Hi Kate and Jackson! Thank you for thinking of Urban Pet Haus. We appreciate your support. Love your bungalow and the guitar collection Jackson! Kate you might have another business model for interior cat design consultations! Cheers!

I LOVE JACKSON and his show on Animal Planet. He helps me understand my two cats better than ever. Perfect way to spend my Sat afternoon since retiring in January. Also, love all the wonderful stuff that ModernCat gives away. Maybe I can get lucky one day too. Your service is wonderful – and so is Jackson !!!

Kate, You have done a gorgeous job at Jackson’s home. I will bet he, the cats and the dog are thrilled. And it was great to see that everything you used, you have actually given away to us readers that can’t afford it! Rock on Kate! We are all riding you coat tails!

I watch ur program regularly. And I have never in my life seen a man who cared for cats as u do. I think its so wonderful (I really don’t have the words toi describe what I think) I live with my daughter and 7 cats and nothing- THE CATS ARE ALWAYS FIRST for everything, all vet check and very well cared for and loved. I could sure use some catified tips as we live in such a small space they have lots of toys and a tree house but by watching ur show I feel there is some much more catifying I could do. If u have any ideas for a small place please email. And if ur ever in canada I would love for u too have a look and enclosing my cats are not related except our 2 new babies and never had a problem with fights they all get along they share spaces and when introducing a new cat it takes 2-3 days and all is well. My male cat Casper has even tried to “mother” the new kittens. Take cat hope to hear some feedback.